Thoughts on solo travel, meeting people while you're moving, and what we're learning while building Antur.
Two words that get used interchangeably describe genuinely different experiences. How to tell which one you're actually feeling, and why it changes what you do about it.
They're one of the most useful tools for meeting people once you've arrived, and completely useless before that. The honest version, not the "just join the group chat" advice.
Someone dropped out and now you're doing it alone. How to work out what still makes sense, what to rebook, and the part that actually needs planning.
The hardest part of solo travel isn't the flights or the language barrier. It's that first evening, before you've met anyone — and it's worth planning for rather than hoping it sorts itself out.
Free and enormous versus structured and specific. An honest comparison of the two tools solo travellers actually use, and the gap both of them leave.
Apps, hostel group chats, Facebook groups, walking tours, route matching — an honest look at every way solo travellers actually find people, and where each one falls short.
Tourlina, Bumble BFF, Facebook groups, hostel WhatsApp — what each is good for, and the one question none of them ask: same place, same time, stop by stop.
Pick a shape, cut the city list, book only the anchors. A practical guide to building a solo interrail route — and why who else is on it matters more than you'd expect.
Not the whole trip — specific, predictable moments. When solo interrailing gets lonely, why solitude isn't the same thing, and what actually helps.
Add your route and rough dates, then get matched on overlap rather than proximity. The mechanic behind route-matching, step by step.
Every app that connects people uses the same idea: show me who's nearby. For someone moving every few days, that idea quietly falls apart.